© Pint of Science, 2026. All rights reserved.
Our fireside chat explores a pressing question: Why does the world feel so disordered, and what can we do about it?
From global conflicts and shifting power dynamics to rising living costs and political uncertainty, disorder is shaping everyday life in the UK and beyond.
Join us for a discussion moderated by Professor Inderjeet Parmar (City St George’s University of London), as we explore whether this is a temporary crisis or a lasting shift and what it means for all of us.
From global conflicts and shifting power dynamics to rising living costs and political uncertainty, disorder is shaping everyday life in the UK and beyond.
Join us for a discussion moderated by Professor Inderjeet Parmar (City St George’s University of London), as we explore whether this is a temporary crisis or a lasting shift and what it means for all of us.
Fireside chat: Last orders for the Old World Order (Prof Inderjeet Parmar)
Prof Inderjeet Parmar
(Inderjeet Parmar is professor of international politics and associate dean of research in the School of Policy and Global Affairs at City St George’s, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and writes the American Imperium column for The Wire. He is the author of several books, including Foundations of the American Century and is currently writing on the history of the US foreign policy establishment and Trump and the Crisis of American Empire.)
Professor Inderjeet Parmar, as panel moderator, will lead on the discussion across the panel and the audience with the following questions:
Q1/ Many people feel that the world has become dramatically more disordered in the last few years – great-power rivalry, wars in Europe and the Middle East, fracturing alliances, and rising nationalism at home. Is this a temporary storm, or are we witnessing a fundamental and lasting shift in the global order? And if it is a deeper change, what’s really driving it?
Q2/ How is this global disorder actually affecting everyday life here in the UK – whether through the cost of living, energy security, migration, or the state of our own politics? Are we just spectators, or are British decisions (and indecision) making the disorder worse?
Q3/ What realistic steps can governments, institutions, or even ordinary citizens take to navigate or reduce this global disorder? Or are we simply going to have to learn to live with a more chaotic, unpredictable world for the foreseeable future?
Q1/ Many people feel that the world has become dramatically more disordered in the last few years – great-power rivalry, wars in Europe and the Middle East, fracturing alliances, and rising nationalism at home. Is this a temporary storm, or are we witnessing a fundamental and lasting shift in the global order? And if it is a deeper change, what’s really driving it?
Q2/ How is this global disorder actually affecting everyday life here in the UK – whether through the cost of living, energy security, migration, or the state of our own politics? Are we just spectators, or are British decisions (and indecision) making the disorder worse?
Q3/ What realistic steps can governments, institutions, or even ordinary citizens take to navigate or reduce this global disorder? Or are we simply going to have to learn to live with a more chaotic, unpredictable world for the foreseeable future?
Fireside chat: Last orders for the Old World Order (Dr Lea Hellmueller)
Dr Lea Hellmueller
(Lea Hellmueller is Associate Dean for Research and Innovation at City St George’s, University of London. She is an Associate Professor in the Journalism Department and an Affiliate Researcher with the Violence & Society Centre specialising on global threats to journalism, working on projects investigating gender-based violence against journalists, politicians and human rights defenders.)
Pressure on media organizations and journalists has created a situation in which they manage to survive with their independence eroded, fulfilling a function of global press disorder, a situation during which normative and ethical functions of the press are neglected at the expense of survival instincts of media organisations, which essentially harms the public and information integrity in society. Furthermore, this comes at a time during which trust in established institutions is at an all-time low and bypassing journalism is a significant trend that we are witnessing around the world (accelerated with introduction of AI, among many factors) essentially evading public accountability.
Fireside chat: Last orders for the Old World Order (Prof Photis Lysandrou)
Prof Photis Lysandrou
(His current research interests are in the areas of international finance, corporate governance and theories of global inequality. He continues to give public lectures on these subjects, his most recent being those given for the London Banking Academy and for the Brussels based diplomat school, CERIS-ULB. )
Global Disorder and Dollar Dominance Under Trump
The chief cause of global disorder at the present time is the disruptive policy agenda pursued under Donald Trump's second presidency. While the huge costs of this agenda incurred by the vast majority of the world's countries have no counterbalancing benefits, this is not the case for the US itself. Rather, the amplification of global disorder and of an ensuing investor flight to safety only serve to further strengthen the dollar's global dominance.
The chief cause of global disorder at the present time is the disruptive policy agenda pursued under Donald Trump's second presidency. While the huge costs of this agenda incurred by the vast majority of the world's countries have no counterbalancing benefits, this is not the case for the US itself. Rather, the amplification of global disorder and of an ensuing investor flight to safety only serve to further strengthen the dollar's global dominance.
Fireside chat: Last orders for the Old World Order (Dr Sasikumar Sundaram)
Dr Sasikumar Sundaram
(Dr Sasikumar Sundaram is Senior Lecturer in Foreign Policy and Security at the Department of International Politics, City St George's, University of London. He is the author of Rhetorical Powers: How Rising States Shape International Order (Columbia University Press, 2026), which develops a bold new theory of rhetoric as power politics in global order-making. His research focuses on non-Western states, international security, and the Global South.)
Rhetoric, Misperceptions and Disorder
We are entering a new constitutional moment, marked by deepening global disorder. The primary driver of this disorder is the corrosive power of contemporary rhetoric and the widespread misperceptions it generates in the world. In Britain, political rhetoric has increased markedly in the domestic realm, while its foreign policy and security discourse has sown confusion, inflated threats, and distorted reality. Far from being a passive actor, the United Kingdom stands central to the production and amplification of this disorder through its words, alliances, and narratives.
To navigate this crisis, governments must reorient toward a critical understanding of the emerging "multiplex world." This requires curbing the influence of oligarchic power, prioritising the needs of citizens over corporate and financialised interests, and deliberately shifting toward a more progressive, clarifying rhetoric. Only by addressing the rhetorical roots of disorder can constitutional renewal and genuine stability be achieved.
We are entering a new constitutional moment, marked by deepening global disorder. The primary driver of this disorder is the corrosive power of contemporary rhetoric and the widespread misperceptions it generates in the world. In Britain, political rhetoric has increased markedly in the domestic realm, while its foreign policy and security discourse has sown confusion, inflated threats, and distorted reality. Far from being a passive actor, the United Kingdom stands central to the production and amplification of this disorder through its words, alliances, and narratives.
To navigate this crisis, governments must reorient toward a critical understanding of the emerging "multiplex world." This requires curbing the influence of oligarchic power, prioritising the needs of citizens over corporate and financialised interests, and deliberately shifting toward a more progressive, clarifying rhetoric. Only by addressing the rhetorical roots of disorder can constitutional renewal and genuine stability be achieved.
Fireside chat: Last orders for the Old World Order (Dr Alexandria Innes)
Dr Alexandria Innes
(Dr Alexandria Innes is Reader in International Politics, with a specialization in critical security studies, ontological security, and the politics of international migration. She is the author of Migration, Citizenship and the Challenge for Security (Palgrave), and Colonial Citizenship and Transnational Identity: An immigrant’s story (Routledge), has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, and offered commentary for various media outlets including the BBC and USA National Public Radio. )
Official Home Office record keeping of small boat arrivals began in 2018, when arrivals were in the hundreds. In 2025, arrivals reached 41,500 people. It seems reasonable that such an exponential rise could indicate disorder. My focus is on the disordering of global migration, that is, the policy decisions, international agreements, and gaps in global immigration governance that produces circumstances and conditions in which travel without state authorisation happens. Small boat arrivals are one piece of evidence, 'bringing home' so to speak, disorder at the global level. Yet, UK policy decisions have consistently been underpinned by a logic of deterrence that is evidenced as ineffective at achieving stated objectives, and that causes additional disordered side effects.
Fireside chat: Last orders for the Old World Order (Prof Mel Bunce)
Prof Mel Bunce
(Professor Mel Bunce is a university leader, researcher and international media commentator. She is currently the Deputy Dean of the School of Communication & Creativity at City, University of London, and she was previously the Head of City's renowned Department of Journalism. Her research focuses on journalism and democracy, media freedom and international journalism.)
Declining media freedom
Journalism and democracy are under attack globally. Reporters are being murdered in war zones and jailed for doing their jobs at unprecedented rates. Independent media outlets are pressured and smeared by political leaders, while journalists are harassed, abused and threatened online and off. Viral disinformation and conspiracy campaigns are polluting information eco-systems as Big Tech companies dismantle the guardrails. And the business model for public interest media is failing...
Journalism and democracy are under attack globally. Reporters are being murdered in war zones and jailed for doing their jobs at unprecedented rates. Independent media outlets are pressured and smeared by political leaders, while journalists are harassed, abused and threatened online and off. Viral disinformation and conspiracy campaigns are polluting information eco-systems as Big Tech companies dismantle the guardrails. And the business model for public interest media is failing...
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.